Keil Wins Cutthroat Election

In an unsurprising turn of events ArenaNet announced yesterday that Inspector Ellen Kiel has officially been announced as the winner of the Captain Council Election. Here are the rewards that we can look forward to:

I’ll reduce waypoint travel prices for four weeks’ timeI’ll support important Fractals of the Mists research into the Thaumanova Reactor explosion by the end of the yearI’ll introduce a rotating schedule of activities such as Crab Toss and Southsun Survival.

Many people saw this as a forgone conclusion given the amount of involvement that Ellen has had with the Living Story over the last several updates. Others have cited that her being a human was also a primary reason for winning the election.

Does Ellen’s victory speak of a larger problem with racial issues in the game? From a lore perspective the humans and the charrs have always been clashing so it was only natural that this election be between those two races. Yet from a player base perspective many of us came from Guild Wars 1 where the only playable race was the humans, and for many the charr are viewed as the enemy. Even though time has passed in the game world it is hard for some players to let go of those feelings and embrace the new political climate.

For now we can look forward to some more gold in our pockets and the chance to explore the Thamanova Reactor. Later today the next part of the Living Story, the Queen’s Jubilee, kicks off with a whole slew of new features headed our way.